Atlantis Expedition
The Atlantis Expedition is an international contingent of Starfleet officers and Starfleet Marines based on Starbase Atlantis. The impetus for the expedition's creation was to explore the Kaleb system. An international committee, originally called the Atlantis Committee was established, creating the first truly international body for the management of Earth's off world affairs. The Expedition is currently led by Samantha Carter with her predecessor having been Dr. Elizabeth Weir. Like the SGC, the Expedition also deploys several highly-trained teams composed of Starfleet, MACOs and Starfleet marine personnel and civilians from every country in the world with the Expedition's flagship team, the First Atlantis Reconnaissance Team or AR-1 which is led by Colonel John Sheppard who also serves as the Expedition's military commander. History Arrival When the Atlantis expedition arrived from Earth through the Jumpgate in July 2379, they started to explore the galaxy until Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay, the expedition's chief science officer discovered that they should bulid a starbase. After searching Athos for safe refuge due to the starbase not being ready, the search team eventually brought the Athosians back after a Wraith culling occurred. When the team and refugees returned, the expedition continued to settle down and set up home for both themselves and the Athosian refugees. Federation encounters with the Wraith By this time in the Pegasus galaxy, Starbase 290 had been built by the expedition. Having learned of the existence of Earth as a more densely populated feeding ground, the Wraith sent three Hive ships to attack Starbase Atlantis. The Atlantis expedition was able to send a message to Earth, which sent its newest battlecruiser, the , to assist them. Together, they managed to destroy the three ships, but the Wraith sent another twelve. Seeing no way of destroying them, the expedition used a cloak adapted from a Puddle Jumper, and a timed quantum torpedo to make it appear that the starbase had been destroyed. The Wraith fell for the ruse, causing them to fall into Civil War. The secret of Starbase Atlantis is now a top priority for the expedition members. Later in the same year, live Lanteans were discovered in the void between Pegasus and the Milky Way, who subsequently reclaimed the starbase and forced the expedition out. Shortly afterwords, the Asurans attacked the starbase, killing the Lanteans and taking Brigadier General Jack O'Neill and Richard Woolsey hostage. Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, Typhuss James Kira, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, McKay, Dr. Carson Beckett, Teyla Emmagan, and Ronon Dex launched a daring rescue mission, using the starbase's shield generators to emit a massive Replicator disruptor wave. The expedition was then able to reclaim Starbase Atlantis, keeping one of the Zero Point Modules installed by the Asurans. The Asuran conflict Sometime later, after a massive preemptive strike on Asuras by Earth's new battle cruiser, the , the Asurans launched an attack on Starbase 290. They sent a satellite housing a Stargate to a planet, and after dialing in from Asuras, directed a powerful energy beam at Starbase 290. Unable to evacuate the starbase, they were able to fully dissipate the beam and defeat the Asurans by destroying their satellite weapon. Alliance against the Asurans Knowing that the Atlantis team had re-activated the attack command in the Asurans, the Wraith, Todd, allied himself with them in an attempt to stop the Asurans once and for all as they were a common enemy between the Wraith and the humans of the Federation. After McKay came up with a plan that would destroy the Asurans for good, the humans of Starbase Atlantis formed an alliance with the Wraith to forge an attack fleet to hold off the Asuran fleet long enough for the plan to be put into play. In the battle that followed, the Federation, Wraith, and Travelers, worked side-by-side against the Asurans and finally destroyed them with the loss of a single Hive ship and a single Travelers ship. Afterwords the alliance was ended and the war resumed. Clashes with the Wraith Although the Federation-Wraith war continues, the Federation have made considerable progress despite terrible odds. With the addition of battlecruisers and quantum phasers, the Federation are slowly gaining the upper hand in terms of technology, but they still lack anywhere near enough ships to actually start a full scale war. Since the alliance against the Asurans, there have only been a few skirmishes (mostly with Michael Kenmore), but the Tau'ri gained a major victory when they destroyed the Wraith cloning facility that had created the army that had overwhelmed the Ancients before the Wraith could clone a new one, and took another Hive ship with it. Michael Kenmore, an enemy of the Expedition invaded Starbase Atlantis in the hope of kidnapping Teyla Emmagan's son to perfect his armies but he was ultimately defeated with Teyla sending Michael to his death. With the help of Todd, the expedition has made some headway and even found a way to cause the Wraith to lose their feeding organs with the result of a deadly disease. Todd is the only survivor of that disease. He had also stolen an unknown number of Zero Point Modules (at least six) from Asuras before it was destroyed and has used them to his own ends. Three were used to power the cloning facility and were destroyed when it was destroyed, at least one was used to power a hive ship and two more were given to Atlantis to fully power it. The ZPM used to power the Hive ship caused it to become the Super-hive and was so powerful that it was nearly invincible and not even two Daedalus class ships could destroy it. This led to the Battle of the Super-hive where that particular hive ship went after Earth. After a massive battle where Earth lost its weapons platform, the Hive ship was destroyed by Sheppard and the team as well as Major Evan Lorne using a quantum torpedo Sheppard managed to sneak aboard. The IOA attempts to shutdown the expedition On Earth, the IOA began shutting down the expedition. Many, such as Rodney McKay quit or transferred away. Others began to join the crew of the which would be going to Pegasus to continue the fight against the Wraith. Eventually, the IOA shut down the expedition entirely, in a last desperate attempt to force the IOA to stop, General Jack O'Neill seized control of Starbase Atlantis, using the fact that it was in Federation hands to claim it for Starfleet. At the same time, he made sure all transfers were to the George Hammond where General Carter, who was working with him, could transfer the people back. Richard Woolsey also began spinning the situation from a political angle, reminding the IOA that as long as Starbase Atlantis was under Federation control, it fell under Starfleet jurisdiction. Not wanting Starbase Atlantis under full Starfleet control, the IOA eventually caved and restored the expedition, claiming that they had always planned to allow the Atlantis expedition to return to Pegasus. O'Neill restored command to Carter, having used his brief tenure as commander to stock Starbase Atlantis with supplies and bring in "half the Starfleet Marine Corps", Doctor Bill Lee and his team and the entire SGC maintenance section to effect repairs to the Starbase Atlantis weapons that would've taken months otherwise. Thanks to O'Neill, the Atlantis expedition now numbered around four hundred people, about one hundred of which were new Starfleet marine personnel. As he could not hire new civilian contractors during the time the expedition was shut down, Carter welcomed these new people. Two days after the IOA caved, the restored Atlantis expedition began its return trip to Pegasus. Return to Pegasus Seven days into a nine day journey back to Pegasus, the was traveling in the Jumpgate when the gate developed a malfunction due to a problem and the Polaris ended up in the intergalactic void between the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies, stranded in space until the gate could be repaired. Once the gate was repaired the Polaris re-entered the gate and continued on to the Pegasus galaxy. They arrived several hours later and set a course to Starbase 290. The expedition also discovered a new Wraith Queen had risen to power in their absence, Queen Death and posed a very great threat to the galaxy. Things took a turn for the worse, though as during a raid, McKay was eventually captured by a Wraith Dart, leaving his team devastated and vowing to search for him. They eventually found him but were shocked to discover that he had been turned into a Wraith named "Quicksilver" and that McKay/Quicksilver had also developed severe memory loss, believing that he had always been a Wraith who loyally served the Wraith Queen, Death. Commanding officers *Colonel/Brigadier General Samantha Carter (2381-present) *Dr./Lieutenant General Elizabeth Weir (2379-2381) *Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard (2381) (Acting) Starbase life The Atlantis expedition have set up numerous social activities to make residents of the starbase feel more at home. There is even an orientation committee to help new members get settled in. Social activities include: *Unofficial Mensa Chapter *Movie screenings *Organised sports and other physical activities: **Volleyball **Kickboxing **Golf *Chess tournaments *Poker nights It is also implied that there is a bar on Starbase Atlantis (either officially or unofficially) where members can get alcoholic beverages such as beer. Atlantis uniforms Each expedition member wears a standard issue uniform that also has a flag patch showing the flag of their home country. Though the most common uniforms are almost all charcoal grey, some members have been seen with all-khaki uniforms. They are also color coded. The colors indicate what specialty the members are part of: *Red (civilian, leader) - Worn by Dr. Elizabeth Weir, Teyla Emmagan, Colonel Samantha Carter and Richard Woolsey. *Blue/dark blue or purple (scientist) - Worn by Dr Meredith Rodney McKay and Dr. Radek Zelenka. *Yellow (medical) - Worn by Dr. Carson Beckett and Dr. Jennifer Keller. *Black (Starfleet Marine and Starfleet) - Worn by Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and Major Evan Lorne. *Green (technician) - Worn by Chuck and Amelia Banks. In 2382, another variant of the uniform was introduced. Category:Starfleet units Category:Starfleet expeditions Category:Top secret Federation organizations